66 Henry Fielding Quotes

Henry Fielding quotes

1. I am as sober as a judge.

2. Much may be said on both sides.

3. The dusky night rides down the sky, And ushers in the morn; The hounds all join in glorious cry, The huntsman winds his horn, And a-hunting we will go.

4. He in a few minutes ravished this fair creature, or at least would have ravished her, if she had not, by a timely compliance, prevented him.

5. A lover, when he is admitted to cards, ought to be solemnly silent, and observe the motions of his mistress. He must laugh when she laughs, sigh when she sighs. In short, he should be the shadow of her mind. A lady, in the presence of her lover, should never want a looking-glass; as a beau, in the presence of his looking-glass, never wants a mistress.

6. Dancing begets warmth, which is the parent of wantonness. It is, Sir, the great grandfather of cuckoldom.

7. Love and scandal are the best sweeteneers of tea.

8. All Nature wears one universal grin.

9. Petition me no petitions, sir, to-day; Let other hours be set apart for business. Today it is our pleasure to be drunk; And this our queen shall be as drunk as we.

10. When I'm not thanked at all, I'm thanked enough; I've done my duty, and I've done no more.

11. Thy modesty 's a candle to thy merit.

12. Lo, when two dogs are fighting in the streets, With a third dog one of the two dogs meets; With angry teeth he bites him to the bone, And this dog smarts for what that dog has done.

13. We must eat to live and live to eat.

14. Sir, money, money, the most charming of all things; money, which will say more in one moment than the most elegant lover can in years. Perhaps you will say a man is not young; I answer he is rich. He is not genteel, handsome, witty, brave, good-humoured, but he is rich, rich, rich, rich, rich-that one word contradicts everything you can say against him.

15. Penny saved is a penny got.

16. A comic writer should of all others be the least excused for deviating from nature, since it may not be always so easy for a serious poet to meet with the great and the admirable; but life every where furnishes an accurate observer with the ridiculous.

17. The only source of the true Ridiculous (as it appears to me) is affectation

18. It is a trite but true observation, that examples work more forcibly on the mind than precepts.

19. To whom nothing is given, of him can nothing be required.

20. I am content; that is a blessing greater than riches; and he to whom that is given need ask no more.

21. I describe not men, but manners; not an individual, but a species.

22. They are the affectation of affectation.

23. I have found it; I have discovered the cause of all the misfortunes which befell him. A public school, Joseph, was the cause of all the calamaties which he afterwards suffered. Public schools are the nurseries of all vice and immorality.

24. Some folks rail against other folks, because other folks have what some folks would be glad of.

25. Men who pay for what they eat will insist on gratifying their palates

26. The same animal which hath the honour to have some part of his flesh eaten at the table of a duke, may perhaps be degraded in another part,and some of his limbs gibbeted, as it were, in the vilest stall in town.

27. ...the excellence of the mental entertainment consists less in the subject than in the author's skill in well dressing it up.

28. ...for nothing can be more reasonable, than that slaves and flatterers should exact the same taxes on all below them, which they themselves pay to all above them.

29. Every physician almost hath his favorite disease.

30. Thwackum was for doing justice, and leaving mercy to heaven.

31. Can any man have a higher notion of the rule of right and the eternal fitness of things?

32. In reality, the world have payed too great a compliment to critics, and have imagined them men of much greater profundity than they really are.

33. He was, indeed, in a condition, in which, if reason had interposed, though only to advise, she might have received the answer which one Cleostratus gave many years ago to a silly fellow, who asked him, if he was not ashamed to be drunk? 'Are not you,' said Cleostratus, 'ashamed to admonish a drunken man?'--To say the truth, in a court of justice drunkenness must not be an excuse, yet in a court of conscience it is greatly so.

34. Distinction without a difference.

35. His designs were strictly honorable, as the phrase is; that is, to rob a lady of her fortune by way of marriage.

36. Hairbreadth missings of happiness look like the insults of Fortune.

37. When children are doing nothing, they are doing mischief.

38. To speak a bold truth, I am, after much mature deliberation, inclined to suspect that the public voice hath, in all ages, done much injustice to Fortune, and hath convicted her of many facts in which she had not the least concern.

39. Life may as properly be called an art as any other.

40. It hath been often said, that it is not death, but dying which is terrible.

41. Guilt has very quick ears to an accusation.

42. These are called the pious frauds of friendship.

43. When widows exclaim loudly against second marriages, I would always lay a wager that the man, if not the wedding day, is absolutely fixed on.

44. One fool at least in every married couple.

45. A good face they say, is a letter of recommendation. O Nature, Nature, why art thou so dishonest, as ever to send men with these false recommendations into the World!

46. There is not in the universe a more ridiculous, nor more contemptible animal, than a proud clergyman.

1. It is not from nature, but from education and habits, that our wants are chiefly derived.

2. When I mention religion I mean the Christian religion; and not only the Christian religion, but the Protestant religion; and not only the Protestant religion, but the Church of England.

3. To the generality of men you cannot give a stronger hint for them to impose upon you than by imposing upon yourself.

4. Distance of Time and Place do really cure what they seem to aggravate; and taking Leave of our Friends resembles taking Leave of the World, concerning which it hath been often said, that it is not Death but Dying which is terrible.

5. In the forming of female friendships beauty seldom recommends one woman to another.

6. The devil take me, if I think anything but love to be the object of love.

7. The slander of some people is as great a recommendation as the praise of others.

8. For parents to restrain the inclinations of their children in marriage is an usurped power.

9. Contempt of others is the truest symptom of a base and bad heart,--while it suggests itself to the mean and the vile, and tickles there little fancy on every occasion, it never enters the great and good mind but on the strongest motives; nor is it then a welcome guest,--affording only an uneasy sensation, and bringing always with it a mixture of concern and compassion.

10. A good man therefore is a standing lesson to us all.

11. Good-breeding is not confined to externals, much less to any particular dress or attitude of the body; it is the art of pleasing, or contributing as much as possible to the ease and happiness of those with whom you converse.

12. Adversity is the trial of principle. Without it, a man hardly knows whether he is honest or not.

13. The greatest part of mankind labor under one delirium or another; and Don Quixote differed from the rest, not in madness, but the species of it. The covetous, the prodigal, the superstitious, the libertine, and the coffee-house politician, are all Quixotes in their several ways.

14. Want compassion is not to be numbered among the general faults of mankind. The black ingredient which fouls our disposition is envy. Hence our eyes, it is to be feared, are seldom turned up to those who are manifestly greater, better, wiser, or happier than ourselves, without some degree of malignity, we commonly look downward on the mean and miserable with sufficient benevolence and pity.

15. It is well known to all great men, that by conferring an obligation they do not always procure a friend, but are certain of creating many enemies.

16. If you make money your god, it will plague you like the devil.

17. As a conquered rebellion strengthens a government, or as health is more perfectly established by recovery from some diseases; so anger, when removed, often gives new life to affection.

18. A wonder lasts but nine days, and then the puppy's eyes are open.

19. Custom may lead a man into many errors; but it justifies none.

20. A grave aspect to a grave character is of much more consequence than the world is generally aware of; a barber may make you laugh, but a surgeon ought rather to make you cry.